UK food manufacturers have started to experiment with tara gum as a cost effective alternative to locust bean gum in everything from ice cream to babyfood. However, more education is needed to raise awareness of its technical benefits, according to a leading supplier.
While some UK products such as Wall's Neapolitan ice cream and Waitrose panna cotta contained tara gum, it was still quite new to many UK manufacturers, said Massimo Gotti at Silvateam Food Ingredients, a leader in the production of tara gum a natural thickener and stabiliser derived from the seeds of the Peruvian Tara tree (Caesalpinia Spinosa). The gum, which can totally or partially replace other hydrocolloids in ice cream, jam, cheese, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, sausages, bakery products, desserts, soups and baby food, is heat and acid stable, cheaper than locust bean gum and more viscous than locust bean gum, guar gum or carob bean gum, said Gotti.
A white/yellow powder, tara gum is also easy to use, soluble in hot and cold water and offers better flavour release compared to some other hydrocolloids at low dosages, he claimed. "Like carob bean gum, tara gum also has a gelling effect together with xanthan and increases the gelling properties of agar and carrageenan."
Silvateam, which has a production capacity of more than 900t of tara gum from a variety of Peruvian plantations, has also made a significant investment in a development centre in Italy to explore new applications for the gum, which is distributed in the UK and Ireland by Calleva under the Aglumix 01 brand.